Tag: Offensive

At least 19 suspected militants were killed and several others injured in three US drone attacks in Birmal Tehsil, South Waziristan on Monday, as...

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday that the government was not taking dictation from anybody for action in North Waziristan, but it...

Pakistan ruled out on Wednesday an imminent operation in the restive tribal region of North Waziristan as the government has so far no taken...

TRIPOLI/SANAA - Muammar Gaddafi's government said it was declaring a unilateral ceasefire in its offensive to crush Libya's revolt on Friday, while Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced a state of emergency after medics said 46 people were killed when pro-regime loyalists and police opened fire on protesters in Sanaa.
Libyan government troops pounded the rebel-held western city of Misrata, killing at least 25 people including children and injuring at least 200, a doctor

BREGA/AJDABIYAH - Muammar Gaddafi's troops seized the strategic Libyan oil town of Brega on Sunday forcing rebels to retreat under a heavy bombardment while world powers considered imposing a no-fly zone.
Losing Brega and its refinery further limits rebel access to fuel after the insurgents were pushed out of Ras Lanuf on Sunday, another major oil terminal some 100 km to the west along the coast road where all of Libya's important towns are located.
"Brega has been cleansed

BUJUMBURA - At least 43 Burundian soldiers have been killed and 110 have been wounded since the start of a Somali government-African Union offensive against insurgents on February 23, military sources said.
"The official toll given so far is totally false," a military source in Mogadishu who requested anonymity told AFP.
"In reality, 43 soldiers of the Burundi contingent ... have been killed, another four are missing and 110 were wounded during the last joint offensive ...

CAIRO - Egypt's increasingly isolated regime, once disdainful of the media, has launched a charm offensive in a bid to sap the momentum of massive protests calling for President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow.
Ministers are speaking to the press far more often, their remarks are more conciliatory, and the state-run media has belatedly started to use positive terms to refer to the "Revolution of January 25." The government is "making an enormous effort to communicate," political

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Thursday said it would not accept any foreign pressure for launching a military offensive against the Al Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants in North Waziristan, which the United States believes has become the hub of global terrorism.
"Washington knows our position, our viewpoint on full-scale operations in North Waziristan very well and we will move ahead at a time of our own choosing," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said while addressing his weekly

LAHORE - The Hizbul Tahir staged a protest in front of the Lahore Press Club on Sunday against the possible military operation in North Waziristan. Protesters were holding placards, banners and chanting slogans against presence and involvement of US forces in South Asia.
The organisation's leader Agha Tahir said that Americans were facing a difficult situation in Afghanistan and pressurising the federal government to start a military operation, as Washington wanted to protect its

ISLAMABAD: Top US military officer, Admiral Michael Mullen, who met Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani on Wednesday, asked for a military offensive in North Waziristan saying it was vital for the elimination of terrorism not only in the Tribal Areas but also across the border in Afghanistan.
"Admiral Mullen, US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), called on the army chief at the General Headquarters. The visiting dignitary remained with him for some time and discussed matters of

ISLAMABAD: Dozens of families have returned to South Waziristan with UN and government help to rebuild their lives after major fighting against the Taliban, a UN official said Sunday.
Thirty-five families were returned Sunday with 48 families already having resettled on Saturday under a repatriation process due continue until next year, the official said. "Thirty-five families left today from northwestern city of Tank to return home," UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokeswoman Ariane

WASHINGTON/PARIS: Top US commander in Afghanistan General David Petraeus said on Tuesday Pakistan recognised the need to take more action against insurgents in tribal regions from which they can attack NATO forces over the border.
"They recognise the need for more operations in North Waziristan," Petraeus said at a university lecture in Paris in which he gave an update on the NATO alliance's campaign to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan. Petraeus said Pakistani security forces

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan itself has to decide the time of launching an offensive in North Waziristan or any place else, General James N Mattis, commander of the United States Central Command, said on Saturday.
During a meeting with Pakistani military leadership, General Mattis said Pakistan was well aware of the US concerns over secret Al Qaeda hideouts inside Pakistan. Defence sources told Online that the US general met Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee Gen Khalid Shameem Wyne

BEIJING: British Prime Minister David Cameron's efforts to double trade with China by 2015 received a boost on Tuesday when engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce won a $1.2-billion order from China Eastern Airlines.
Cameron, making his first visit to China since taking office in May, has aimed for annual trade of more than $100 billion with the world's second-largest economy within five years.
The prime minister told British reporters he would bring up human rights issues with

ISLAMABAD
Keeping in view the American frustration and also the pressure that they have been building, a fresh but targeted offensive in North Waziristan can be started soon, an official said on Wednesday.
He said US President Barack Obama conveyed the same message of urgency when he called President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday. He said the American president did not go into specifics during his conversation with the president but he urged him to go for more and urgent

KALAYA/PESHAWAR
Pakistan will consider mounting an anti-Taliban offensive in North Waziristan Agency only when other Tribal Areas are stabilised, a senior military officer said on Tuesday, a position likely to anger Washington.
Lt Gen Asif Yasin Malik, the main military commander for the northwest, said it would take at least six months to clear militants from Bajaur and Mohmand agencies.
Addressing a media briefing with Frontier Corps Inspector General Maj General

ISLAMABAD
The US and Pakistan have agreed on Islamabad's own plan for a targeted military offensive in North Waziristan Agency instead of a full-fledged operation demanded by the Obama administration. Until the recently concluded US-Pak Strategic Dialogue in Washington DC, the Obama administration was asking for an all out military operation in North Waziristan but had softened its stance and agreed to a give Islamabad a chance for its own surgical strikes and limited ground